It is hard to believe we have come to the end of another year. It has been wonderful to observe student growth over the course of the year and witness the many different activities that students are involved in to develop as balanced learners.

Our children are actively involved in the school community, they support each other and they take action to make the world a better place. We are very proud of their achievements and value their efforts to continually improve. I would like to thank all families for their support over the year.

I would also like to thank our very dedicated school staff who make learning engaging and work so hard to support all students.

On behalf of the school staff, I would like to once again thank everyone for contributing to a very successful school year full of great memories.

We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday.

CELEBRATION NIGHT

It was really lovely to be joined by so many families last Tuesday evening for our annual Celebration Night concert. Beautiful singing by all of our students created a lovely atmosphere further enhanced by families joining in for a community song. Special thanks to Stacey Stutterd and Peter McPheat for outstanding musical support.

Congratulations to Cassian A who received the Yr 1 reading award, and our Volunteer award recipients; Bronwyn Carey Keene and Selina Treloar. We have truly appreciated the support you have provided to the school

FAREWELL

We would like to acknowledge and thank the following teachers who will be leaving us at the end of this year. We would like to thank them for the many contributions they have made to our learning community and wish them all the best for the future.

Fern van Loon Thomson, who has taught in Reception and Yr 1 over the last 3 years at our school.

Sarah Ward, who has worked one day a week with Kate Trengove in a Yr 1 class. We have appreciated her creative ideas and team spirit.

Sara Harris, who has been working with Juli Bryan in a Yr 5 class. We wish her all the best for the future and the birth of her second baby.

Michelle Govett, will be on maternity leave next year. We wish her all the best for the birth of her third child. As her son is starting school at Coro next year we will see her regularly.

RETIREMENTS

Ginny Chalmer - has decided to retire after 15 years of teaching at Coromandel Valley Primary School. Ginny will be remembered for her creativity and passion for the Arts, particularly evident in her work with Wakakirri. We wish her all the best for a happy retirement.

Sheralyn Robertson - will take leave at the end of this year and retire at the end of next year. Sheralyn has been with us for 11 years and we thank her for the work she has done both in the library and teaching Junior Primary Japanese. We have thoroughly enjoyed her organisation of Book week activities.

Carol Cornish - for family and health reasons Carol went on leave earlier this year and has decided to enjoy retirement. Given Carol's high energy she will take on a range of new projects to benefit the wider community. We appreciate her contributions to our school in particular with the environment, special needs, and planning alongside teachers.

Russell Cropley - has taught at Coro for 10 years, largely in the middle primary classes. Russell had a passion for the environment and keenly encouraged his students to be responsible independent learners who respect the learning community. We wish him all the very best in his retirement.

Liz Pelling 

Next year the structure of our school day will change slightly. The changes were discussed and ratified in the last Governing Council meeting.

The school day will begin at 8:50 am with the first siren at 8:47 am. Teachers will be on duty from 8:25 am which is when students may be at school, unless in OSHC. After much discussion, we have decided to change to a structure of six lessons a day of 50 minutes each. Finishing time will remain at 3:10 pm 

SCIENCE

In addition to this, we have decided to employ a specialist Science teacher who will provide Science lessons to all of our students for one semester. Science is also covered in our IBPYP units of Inquiry and IBMYP units. 

 We would like to wish the very best to all of the students and families who will be leaving our school community this year. 

Thank you for all of the support you have provided to the school community along the way. 

We look forward to the Yr 7 Graduation tonight which is a celebration of students in their final year at our Primary school.

Spelling Bee

Science

Mathematics

Writing

English

This term, both Year 3 classes were invited to join volunteers from our neighbouring church group to participate in a wreath making activity to support our current Unit of Inquiry: Traditions. 

The learning focus of our Unit of Inquiry: Traditions, is built around the central idea that traditions connect people and are expressed in different ways. Our lines of inquiry involves looking at symbols and elements as different forms of traditions and expressing ideas and beliefs through the Arts.

The program has been facilitated and has involved a group of 10-12 students have attended this program run by a former Art Teacher each Tuesday afternoon over four weeks of this term.

At the conclusion of the four-week program, we have a culminating showcase event to display our wreaths which have been created for parents to view. We will also have the opportunity to share our products with the rest of the school community at our Celebration Night event on Tuesday 10^th December.

Dan Johnson and Katie Magarey

For the first time, Coromandel Valley had a team competing at the SA Blitz Chess Championships, a form of chess where each player is restricted to just 5 minutes per game.   This requires players to have a good knowledge of openings and end game strategies, as well as being able to think, plan and strategize very quickly.

6 schools and 50 competitors took part, with Coro having a team of 10 students - Cian, Daniel, Ewan, Finn, Jackson, Jake, Lachlan, Nathan, Nicholas & Sebastian.

After the 9 rounds of competition, Burnside Primary finished in first place on 30.5 points, followed by Coromandel Valley and Prescott College locked together on 21.  Coro eventually finished in 3rd place after a countback of results.  A fabulous result!

The whole team played very well, and 5 of the team received Distinction certificates for their results.  Daniel was our best performed player finishing in 10th place overall with a score of 6 from his 9 games.

Huge thanks to Opal Greenwood & Kerry Coghlan for assisting with transport. to take part.   Without your help it would not have been possible to have our team compete.

The Chess Club continues to meet on Monday lunchtimes, and anyone is welcome to come along. It would be great to see some new faces.

David Shaw

40 students recently took part in the school's Chess Championships.  With a growing number of younger children getting involved with chess at the school, two separate competitions were run - an Open competition for the more experienced kids, and a Novice "Take the King" tournament for the younger children just starting out.                                 

The Open competition was held over 6 rounds, and it was a very close finish, with just 1 win separating the top nine students, and three students tying for first place on 5 wins. After a countback of results, Maggie L. was crowned Coro Chess Champion for 2019, with the 2018 champion Daniel H. in 2nd, and Ewan C. in 3rd.                                   

                Open Champion               - Maggie L

                Best Upper Primary         - Maggie L

                Best Middle Primary       - Daniel H

                Best Junior Primary         - Finn F                      

In the Novice division, 16 children played in their first ever chess tournament, again playing 6 games, with the aim of just taking their opponents King.   It was another close tournament, with four competitors just 1 point apart with 1 game to play.   Hamish B. kept his cool in the last round, winning his match to record a perfect 6 wins from 6 games. Cassian A. finished on 5 wins in 2nd place, with Nathan H. and Beau S. in equal 3rd on 4 wins.                                                  

Congratulations to all the players who took part, particularly those playing in their first chess competitions.  A special thankyou to Sebastian M. for assisting me with the tournament setup.    I look forward to seeing you all at Chess Club next year, to further develop your chess skills.

David Shaw

Knitting Narwhals (Coromandel Valley Primary School Knitting Group)

Congratulations and thankyou to the 15 members of the group for their regular attendance, enthusasm and positive relationships with each other and the volunteers.

This year our community charity goal was to complete 4 doll's bed blankets and donate them to Coromandel Valley Kindergarten.

The group's skils varied from having never knitted before to some previous experience, worked well as a team to achieve this goal.  Different coloured small squares were made, groups were formed to learn colour combinations to design the blankets,  The squares were then crocheted together.

Next task was to work on a project for themselves.  These ranged from teddies, pillow, pencil cases, a lamb and rabbits made from a square.  Quite a challenge to complete all of these.

A special thank you to the volunteers Judy, Mazine and Wendy who gave freely of their time each week, for their skills and enthusiasm as well as the encouragement and support they give to ALL members of the group including myself.

Shirley Williams

volunteer

On Monday our Year 5 and 6 students enjoyed a writing workshop with local author Alys Jackson in the school library. Alys is a published author who spoke to the students about writing skills and encouraged their writing with a fun activity. It was great for our students to improve their literacy skills with Alys, whos own children attended Coromandel Valley Primary School during their primary years.

Last term Alys also visited our school and spoke to the Year 1 and 2 students about her newly published picture book The land belongs to me.

Sheralyn Robertson

Teacher-Librarian

An inspirational rhyming tale about the importance of sharing, solving conflict and caring for our world.

‘Who owns our natural world? With a strong, yet simple message we discover the answer in this beautifully-crafted picture book. The story is a thought-provoking delight!’ - Janeen Brian, author of I'm a Dirty Dinosaur.  

 http://www.alysjackson.com/

On Monday 2nd December, LAP and Kid's Hope students and mentors celebrated with an end of year Christmas Party, followed by a volunteers morning tea.  We are fortunate to have many wonderful volunteers who dedicate their time to support our students across the school, with sport, on excursions, in the classroom, parents and friends and more. 

Your support is greatly appreciated, thank you.

Jenny Tucker

Thank you to everyone in the Coro community who donated items for the Beacon Christmas hampers.

Your generosity is greatly appreciated.

Jenni Forder

Pastrol Care Worker